メナキノン

The discussion going around my house is the difference between Vitamin K2 and the more commonly known Vitamin K. Doing the minimum research, I am persuaded that K2 is one of several K vitamins, chemically distinct, but functionally related.

My wife lauds K2 for taking calcium out of the soft tissues — where it should not be — and putting it into the hard tissues such as bones, where it should be.

Wikipedia: Vitamin K2 (the menaquinones) is a group name for a family of related compounds, generally subdivided into short-chain menaquinones (with MK-4 as the most important member) and the long-chain menaquinones, of which MK-7, MK-8 and MK-9 are nutritionally the most recognized.

W: It has been suggested that vitamin K2 may play an important role in maintaining healthy levels of bone mineral density (BMD). However, data on the subject is inconclusive – some clinical trials show no improvement of BMD after vitamin K supplementation.

It has been learned that there are a wealth of stem cells in the menstrual blood of women with the potential to change into a variety of tissues for the body. When the conditions are right, they can change into heart cells (myocardial cells) at a high rate and even begin beating.

慶応大と国立成育医療センターなどのチームが実験で示した。

This has been shown in experiments conducted by a team which included members from Keio University and the National Center for Child Health and Development.

チームは「月経血は新しい幹細胞源として期待できる」としている。

The team has stated that, “We can expect for menstrual blood to become a new source for stem cells.”

１７日付の米専門誌ステムセルズ（電子版）に論文を発表する。

The paper was announced in the American specialist journal Stem Cells on the 17th [of April, 2008].

チームは、女性６人に協力してもらい、月経血をガラスの容器に採取して培養。

The team had six women cooperate, culturing their menstrual blood after collecting it in glass containers.

人工的に心筋梗塞（こうそく）を起こしたネズミの心臓に移植したところ、症状の改善が確認された。

When this cultured material was transplanted into the hearts of mice in which a myocardial infarction was artificially induced, it was verified that the symptoms improved.

また試験管内の分化誘導実験では、月経血に含まれる細胞の２０％が心筋細胞に変わって、自ら拍動を始めた。

Also, in differentiation-inducement experiments in test tubes, 20% of the cells contained in the menstrual blood changed into myocardial cells, then began beating on their own.

現在、病気の治療に幹細胞を使うときは、赤ちゃんのへその緒に含まれる臍帯血（さいたいけつ）や、骨髄から採ることが多い。

Currently, when stem cells are used in the treatment of illness, they are harvested from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood contained in the umbilical cords of newborns.

しかし、さまざまな組織に変化できる有用な幹細胞が含まれる割合が低いうえ、目的の細胞に変化する割合も高くない。

However, since the ratio that contains useful stem cells which can change into various tissues is low, there is not a high ratio that can change into the target cells.

チームの実験では、心筋細胞に変化した骨髄細胞の割合は、０．３％だった。

In the team’s experiments, the ratio of bone-marrow cells that changed to myocardial cells was 0.3%.

チームの三好俊一郎・慶応大講師は「月経血は医療廃棄物で、使うことに倫理的な問題はなく、採取の際に痛みもない。

Team member Shun’ichiro Miyoshi, who is a lecturer at Keio University, said that, “Since it is medical waste, there are no ethical issues with using menstrual blood, and it is not painful at the time of collection.

将来、若いころに月経血を採って冷凍保存しておき、あとで心臓病になったときに使うことなどが考えられる」と話している。

In the future it may be possible to collect menstrual blood, freeze it, and use it when heart disease occurs.”

The idea of separating content from presentation is fundamentally flawed.

I have found CSS to be a very useful tool. We all understand that CSS is founded on the idea of separating content from presentation. Content is the words, text and images that are published while presentation is the design, look, and feel of the website or whatever medium the content is published on. It now occurs to me that although it seems like a good idea to separate content from presentation, real life does not work that way.

Thinking back over my own websites, once a site has been designed, I begin feeding content into it that suits the design. Changing the design after several years is not a straightforward process, because the effect of existing content will be inevitably affected.

Mobile, Desktop and Web in One Go

Thinking about the differences between the three main forms of web content presentation, this becomes clearer. Think about any website. Think about how that website appears on a 1080px x 1920px widescreen monitor. Now, how does that website appear on a tablet? How does that website appear on an Android or iOS mobile phone? At a minimum, most ‘optimized for mobile’ website rearrange the content presentation. Instead of being a landscape orientation with multiple columns, ‘optimized for mobile’ websites present all content in one continuous column, the singular column taking up the entire portrait width of the screen. Multiple columns on a portrait oriented mobile phone are difficult to read.

This is extremely important when we consider that, in order to be successful, content creators think about how their content will appear to the end user. A 140 character twitter post on a mobile phone is quite impactful. One hundred and forty characters on a widescreen monitor will get lost in the white space, will get lost among the other content, will get overlooked for the high-impact images and multimedia.

A Perennial Problem

It doesn’t make life easier to say, ‘we will write one set of news articles for mobile devices, and another set of articles for desktop users.’ Nor will it always work to split the difference for tablet users. I can think of several major examples where this issue presents significant problems. I have recently started using MailChimp. Because MailChimp is trying to address these three platforms in one go, some of the content, in particular the ‘Next’ button, gets lost for the desktop user, where it may be sufficiently prominent for the tablet user. The other example I will offer is Google+ (I don’t keep a facebook account). It is obvious when photographs are posted with a mobile user in mind: they are portrait oriented. The content producer has considered the device of the end user, and has made the call as to how to best present their information. You can’t please all the people all of the time.

A Way Forward

So what to do? First of all, I would like the web professionals to tell me if I am wrong about this. Have I just given bad examples? Or am I right? Is there a fundamental divide on the web between mobile and desktop that has yet to be satisfactorily addressed by CSS and other tools? Can websites be redesigned on the fly while the content does not suffer at all? If you care, please let me know.

On July 25, in about 40 days I will take an exam, aiming to be certified as a Japanese-to-English medical documents translator. The JTF (Japanese Translation Federation) is innovative in that the exam is in real time entirely online. So much so, that they require that you perform a technical evaluation of the computer that you will be taking the test on, to make sure that all of the computer functionality required for the test is available to you. You cannot take the test on a computer that has not passed the technical clearance.

I am looking forward to it. You can get certified too by going here and registering before the registration deadline: kentei.jtf.jp Follow this link for a general introduction to the JTF Certification.

実用レベル

Practical Level

実用レベルの科目は英日翻訳と日英翻訳があります。

The subjects of the Practical Level are English-Japanese translation and Japanese-English translation

6分野の中から1分野を選択します。

One subject matter field will be selected from among the six subject matter fields.

翻訳の完成度に応じて、1～3級の合格または不合格を判定し、認定します。

A passing determination of grades 1 through 3, or a failing determination, will be made according to the level of completeness of the translation.

3級以上の合格者には「翻訳士」の称号を授与します。

A certificate of “Translator” will be awarded to successful candidates achieving grade 3 or higher.

【1級】

Grade 1

専門家の翻訳であると認定する。

This designates the translation of a specialist.

原文の情報が正確で分かりやすく、かつ適切な文体で表現されている。

The information in the source document can be easily and correctly understood, and translation is expressed with an appropriate style.

【2級】

Grade 2

完成度の点では1級には一歩譲るが、実務では十分に通用する翻訳であると認定する。

The completeness of the translation is a step back from Grade 1, but it is a translation that has been designated to be sufficiently valid for business.

実務上では若干の修正が必要であるが、重大な誤訳はない。

Some correction is required for business, but there are no serious mistranslations.

There are errors in the comprehension of the content, expressiveness, etc., when considering working under time limits, the unusual circumstances of the test, etc., this translation is designated to be a tentatively valid translation for business.